Horta
Not to be confused with the Vorta, one of the members of the Dominion. The Horta is a silicon-based lifeform from Janus VI. It is composed of a material similiar to fibrous asbestos. Horta physiology is very different from the carbon-based norm more commonly found in the galaxy. Horta are hard to find with tricorders, and are invulnerable to phaser I, though they can be injured with an adjusted phaser II. They feed on rock, and thus they are nourished just by tunneling. Horta tunnel through rock like most humanoids walk through air, moving with the aid of an extremely corrosive acid. They leave perfectly round tunnels in their wake. This acid is so corrosive that it only leaves fragments of bone and teeth if used on a Human. Although Hortas did not evolve in an oxygen environment, they seem able to exist in it for extended periods of time. The Horta species lives a very cyclical life cycle. Every 50,000 years all of the Horta die out except for one, the so-called mother Horta, who then watches the eggs until they hatch and mothers and protects them. Horta eggs resemble spheres, and they seem to mostly consist of silicon, aside from a few trace elements. They are stored in the Vault of Tomorrow in the Chamber of the Ages. :This type of life cycle has an incredible risk of extinction, unless there is some as-of-yet unknown means of new mothers being created and distributed through space. It was in the midst of one of these temporary phases of extinction that the Federation colonized Janus VI in the 2210s. The mother Horta tolerated the Federation presence up until the miners established a new, lower level in 2267 where they first encountered Horta eggs. Thinking them nothing more than a ball of useless silicon, the miners' automated equipment destroyed thousands of them. The mother Horta retaliated by carrying out actions of sabotage and murder against the Janus VI colony. It was only when Commander Spock of the [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)|USS ''Enterprise]], called in to catch the dangerous "creature", mind-melded with the mother Horta that he was able to determine that the Horta was actually an intelligent life-form. In fact, before the discovery of the Horta, silicon-based life had been thought a fantasy by Federation scientists. The mother Horta reached an accord with the miners, who were distressed at the destruction they had caused. The miners would leave the Horta alone on the lower levels once they began hatching, while the Horta would use their abilities to locate and construct access to choice mineral deposits for the miners. Just as the Enterprise departed the planet, the first baby Horta hatched and began tunneling like crazy. (TOS: "The Devil in the Dark") Information about the Horta was displayed by the computer as an okudagram graphic in Keiko O'Brien's schoolroom on Deep Space 9. (DS9: "A Man Alone", "The Nagus") Background The Horta was played by Janos Prohaska. According to the text commentary for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home by Michael Okuda: :"Two days before the filming of the Federation Council chamber scene, it was requested that the it include a Horta ambassador. However, due to the short notice for the request, it was impossible to create a Horta in time for filming, and the Horta failed to appear in the film." In the non-canon novel "Articles of the Federation" by Keith R.A. DeCandido, the Horta are members of the Federation as of 2380 and are represented by one "Councillor Sanaht". They also appeared in Greg Cox's DS9 novel, "Devil in the Sky." Horta-manned Federation ships have been mentioned in various novels; apparently they are standard model starships with nearly all amenities removed, and filled with solid stone, which the Horta can reshape as they see fit. Memorable Quotes * "NO KILL I"-Horta *'' "I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer!"-Leonard McCoy'' Category:Species